HARMAN Holo FX

Rekindling the development work originally undertaken at ILFORD's Cheshire factory in the 1980's and enhancing it with improvements in emulsion design and production techniques, HARMAN technology Ltd are proud to introduce a brand new range of holographic glass plates.
HARMAN HOLO FX FINE GRAIN HOLOGRAPHIC PLATES are coated with a very fine grain holographic emulsion (crystal sizes typically 30-40nm) and are available in both red and green sensitive. Capable of extremely high resolution (more than 7000 cycles/mm) and with optimum transmissivity better than 80% at peak sensitivity, HARMAN HOLO FX plates are an excellent candidate for producing high quality Denisyuk holograms. Additionally the intrinsic scatter of the unexposed emulsion is sufficiently low to enable it to meet the demanding resolution requirements for Lippman-bragg recording, even in the blue spectral region.

HARMAN HOLO FX RED SENSITIVE holographic plates are sensitive over 600nm – 694nm with peak sensitivity at 660nm and can be used with lasers such as Solid State Ruby lasers, HeNe and Krypton Ion gas lasers, both continuous and pulsed.

HARMAN HOLO FX GREEN SENSITIVE holographic plates are sensitive over 488nm – 560nm with peak sensitivity at 532nm and can be used with lasers such as Solid State frequency-doubled Nd:YAG or Argon Ion gas lasers, both continuous and pulsed.

Aimed primarily at photographic art and educational applications, HARMAN HOLO FX plates are designed for use with a wide range of popular lasers, and are available as boxes of 6 plates in sizes 2.5 x 2.5in, 4 x 5in and 8 x 10in. Larger plates for use in commercial, archival and mastering applications are available to special order.

HARMAN Holographic plates can be processed in any of the purpose made holographic developer and bleach combinations, widely available in kit form and offering extremely convenient processing options.
Steven Brierley, Director of Sales and Marketing UK and USA, said "We are delighted to be back in this market again and early feedback from trial customers has been very encouraging."

For those among us who tinker with Holography, this sounds pretty amazing. I'm assuming they could be adapted for normal in-camera use too, with some experimentation.

Wow! Good news for holographers! But of course, this also begs the obvious question...

If Harman is confident enough to introduce glass plates for a niche market as tiny as holography would seem to be, would the potential market for standard-sized, panchromatic glass plates be any larger than that? *

Common sense might say yes. But then, if sense were common, everybody would have it. In this case, maybe I don't...

Ken

* They had to know this question would come quickly.

Last edited by Ken Nadvornick; 06-16-2011 at 11:06 PM. Click to view previous post history.

"They are the proof that something was there and no longer is. Like a stain. And the stillness of them is boggling. You can turn away but when you come back they’ll still be there looking at you."

— Diane Arbus, March 15, 1971, in response to a request for a brief statement about photographs

Holography, although very much related to b&w photography, seems to me to be a completely separate world that we have little awareness of. Because I agree, I'm wondering where the market is.

At any rate, this is awesome and even cooler that they specifically mention Lippmann-Bragg recording. However, are the plates adequately panchromatized to allow for "natural color" recording, or only narrow-band spectral stuff?

The issue with Glass Plates is that I bet you would want lots and lots of different sizes and emulsions and the supply chain is very delicate and the packaging is custom made, coating on glass has a high QC waste factor per m2 as well, so the costs per plate would just not be viable to produce commercially. Holography is most certainly a larger market by m2 than conventional emulsions on glass.

I'm sure the current market for glass plates must be really tiny - but it is surely a bit of a self perpetuating problem... If it isn't possible to buy glass plates then the only people using them are the people making their own, quite a commitment. If glass plates were available again - might it encourage a few people to dig out the Thornton Picards, Sandersons and Rochesters and give it a go? I certainly would. Is it possible that demand may grow.... from really tiny to, er, just fairly tiny?

Could this ever be enough to tip the viability balance?

I wonder what is the most common plate camera out there? Half plate, I would guess. Would an experimental one off coating of, say, FP4 onto half plate be feasible just to test the demand? I wonder if the reaction might be similar to the ULF project, with enthusiasts putting a few boxes in the freezer in case they never get that size again and keeping their fingers crossed that they may get whole plate next year?

Glass plates for normal photography use would primarily be a nostalgic, hobbyist's market; of no practical use really. Holography on the other hand is practiced in countless universities the whole world over and has uses in security technology, data recording, etc.

I would like to know a bit more about the holography market if Simon could spare a few words on the topic.

Glass plates for normal photography use would primarily be a nostalgic, hobbyist's market; of no practical use really.

Absolutely true, of course - but the same could be said of most film photography these days... digital has taken over most of the commercial and industrial uses of film :-(
Most of us now only use film because we want to...

Well that's true to a large extent, but art photography is still a business, and a vital industry to the people that are in it. Large format too, is a medium that is more economical to do with film than digital. And then there's the movie industry...

I guess glass plates would basically be a niche within a niche.

What they really need to do is create a panchromatic liquid emulsion! Then we could easily coat our own glass.

The issue with Glass Plates is that I bet you would want lots and lots of different sizes and emulsions and the supply chain is very delicate and the packaging is custom made, coating on glass has a high QC waste factor per m2 as well, so the costs per plate would just not be viable to produce commercially.

I suppose I knew that. But I had to ask anyway. I can't imagine anything more fun than contemporary glass plates. Except maybe bitumin on pewter plates developed in oil of lavender. Guess I'll just need to start hanging out on Denise Ross' website and (secretly) purchase PE's forthcoming book.

(But should you ever change your minds, I have both 5x7 and 8x10 wooden plate holders and a camera that will accept them, so those would be the ONLY sizes you would EVER need to manufacture...)

Originally Posted by Simon R Galley

Holography is most certainly a larger market by m2 than conventional emulsions on glass.

This I did not know. How facinating. I wonder if the holography market is more artistic or more scientific? Thanks for that.

Ken

"They are the proof that something was there and no longer is. Like a stain. And the stillness of them is boggling. You can turn away but when you come back they’ll still be there looking at you."

— Diane Arbus, March 15, 1971, in response to a request for a brief statement about photographs